This week, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (CPCB) informed the Latvian Farmers’ Union (LFU) that based on the party’s advertisement contract reports for the month, it could exceed the allowed pre-election expense limit.

This was announced by the Chairman of the party Augusts Brigmanis, noting that the bureau had informed the party via fax that in the event of completion of the signed contracts, the political power could exceed the allowed limit by several thousand LVL. Brigmanis emphasized that the union’s calculations in this regard are precise, and that the party can afford to spend 4 000 LVL more. Nevertheless, the party had stopped publishing advertisements in Neatkarīgā and Diena newspapers and specific radio stations in the last days of the pre-election campaign as a precaution.

He explained that this situation came to be because the party has a number of joint candidate lists with other parties in some municipalities. The limit on expenses was never divided. Therefore, the party’s representatives had though in some cases that they are allowed to spend the entire limit on advertisements, although, in reality, they were only allowed to spend half.

Brigmanis had noted that no one wanted to knowingly exceed the limits.

As reported, after having reviewed compiled data of political parties and the media, CPCB had concluded that one of the parties had exceeded the allowed limit on pre-election expenses five days before municipal elections. The bureau did not reveal the name of the party, but noted that the institution had sent a warning to the party.

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit this Wednesday to Kaliningrad, the westernmost point of Russia, but the reports about his trip in the Russian enclave and over the border in Lithuania were strikingly different.

Latvian airBaltic airline carried 393,312 passengers in July 2017, which is 21% more than the same period last year. The number of passengers carried by airBaltic remains the highest it has ever been in the airline’s history, BNN was informed by the company.

U.S. Air Force Brigade’s Task Force Phoenix helicopters, which are stationed in Latvia as part of Atlantic Resolve operation, will be performing low-altitude flights from 16:00 to 18:00 from Lielvarde to Dobele on Friday, 18 August.

An Indian citizen travelling from Moscow on a bus was caught at Terehovo border control point in Latvia for presenting officers a fake EU family member’s resident card. No criminal process was launched. The person returned to the country he was travelling from.

From 21 August onward, Rural Support Service plans to start accepting applications for projects to receive support from European Maritime and Fisheries Fund’s action plan for development of fisheries in 2014-2020 as part of projects Innovation, Productive Investments in Aquaculture and Fishing and Aquaculture project processing.

As the Estonian Ministry of Finance wishes to boost the reputation and brand of the Baltic country's public sector, it has announced a procurement tender aimed at preparing an action plan for reaching these goals.

Because of Swedbank’s planned IT modernization work scheduled for the night to Thursday, 17 August, there may be short term problems with payment card and internet banking functionality, the bank warns.

If he became chairman of Unity, Economy Minister Arvils Aseradens would mobilize democratic forces to prevent the possibility of either Aivars Lembergs or Nils Usakovs becoming prime ministers, Aseradens said in an interview to 900 seconds programme of LNT.

The co-founder of the U.S. computer software firm Microsoft, Bill Gates, has allocated to charity 4.6 billion U.S. dollars (3.9 billion euros), which is the philanthropist's highest donation since the year 2000.

Latvia and Russia will exchange 7,000 universal permits for international cargo transports in 2017. This will be the largest universal permit volume in the past 15 years, as reported by Road Directorate.